Anne Lady Halkett was a daughter of a cadet of the Murray of Tullibardine family and lived from 1622-1699. She was the second wife of Sir James Halkett of Pitfirrane who died in 1670. Lady Halkett was a royalist and author of religious meditations. There are now extant fourteen bound volumes of the 'Meditations', out of a series of twenty-one, namely, numbers v-vii, ix-x, xii-xiii, xv-xxi according to the numbering in an appendix to ‘The life of the Lady Halkett’ (Edinburgh, 1701). The dedication of this work is signed 'S.C.', and it is probably by Simon Couper, a Dunfermline minister who knew Lady Halkett well (see MS.6502, pages 226-229).

Apart from religious reflections, the volumes were used as a diary and contain thoughts of the writer on historical events, for example, the Popish Plot of 1678, as well as comments on her financial troubles consequent on the Civil War and later widowhood. The volumes present here were written from the middle of the seventeenth century until the death of the writer. The other seven volumes were already missing in 1870 when John Gough Nichols was editing the text of ‘The Autobiography of Anne Lady Halkett’ (Camden Society, 1875) (see also MS.6412, folio 213).

Loose papers relative to each volume have been bound in at beginning or end and paginated in Roman numerals.